Rwanda Implements IMF’s Enhanced General Data Dissemination System

By Dipo Olowookere

The Rwanda government has commenced publishing important macroeconomic data on the website of the National Institute of Statistics—the National Summary Data Page (NSDP).

This marks the culmination of recent efforts by the principal statistical agencies working together to publish the data recommended under the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS), while utilizing the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange.

The e-GDDS was established by the IMF’s Executive Board in May 2015 to support improved data transparency, encourage statistical development, and help create synergies between data dissemination and surveillance.

The e-GDDS supersedes the GDDS, which was established in 1997.

In support of these efforts, a staff team from the IMF’s Statistics Department visited Kigali during July 12-18, 2017 to assist with the implementation of the e-GDDS.

The East African nation began publishing the data on September 22, 2017,

Publication of essential macroeconomic data through the new NSDP will provide national policy makers and domestic and international stakeholders, including investors and rating agencies, with easy access to information that the IMF’s Executive Board has identified as important for monitoring economic conditions and policies.

Making this information easily accessible in both human and machine-readable formats, and in accordance with an Advance Release Calendar, allows all users to have simultaneous access to timely data, bringing greater data transparency. It also marks a major milestone in Rwanda’s roadmap towards subscription to the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard.